Before the court ruling, she told the BBC's Outside Source radio programme that Aeroflot had transferred her to night flights inside Russia last summer. She was taken off international routes.

"In October my salary dropped significantly, apparently because I did not qualify for Aeroflot's size standards chart," she said.

"I just felt that it was impossible to keep silent any more. I have lost a lot of money, was exhausted after night flights, so I decided to take these extreme measures. They simply told me that Aeroflot has changed the rules of the game."

Besides passenger safety concerns, Aeroflot also argues that every extra kilogram of weight forces it to spend more on fuel.